And The Stars Called Angels
by Thought
Summary: It's all Q's fault. Q? Sid? crossover, (RT, BT, possible RRH and PC)
1. Default Chapter

âAnd The Stars Called Angels

By: Thought

Disclaimer: None of the characters portrayed in this story are mine. I'll tell you if that changes. Hehe

A/N: Blaim this on cough meds. Seriously. But I would be very, very happy if you were to review! Please? And I even have a plot for this one!

XXX

Prologue

For one who lives forever, the dull day-to-day goings-on of the multiverse can become rather monotonous, rather quickly. There were only so many times you could watch a planet explode, or a new type of life form come into existence, and he had watched these events millions of times more than that. There was nothing happening. Nothing at all interesting. Not a single event caught his interest, and he was becoming extremely frustrated by this fact. In short, Q was bored. Incredibly, immensely, unbearably bored.

He had already gone and played around with the lives of Harry Potter, Sidney Fox, Max Givara and Frodo Baggons, and yet none of them had truly amused him. What he needed, he decided finally, was a real challenge. Something to make him think, and focus. He went to the Enterprise. Nothing was going on. He wentâsomewhere else.

Chapter One

Captain Beka Valentine was exhausted. She was ready to curl up on the floor and sleep for the next month, if she got the chance. Of course, she wouldn't get the chance, Dylan being Dylan. He had been pestering her to spend more time studying the Commonwealth guidelines for being a first officer. Beka had been more than a little shocked and disgusted to find out that there really was such a book. Five of them, in fact, all written by different authors, all saying the exact same thing. Or at least, she thought they did. She hadn't exactly taken the time to read them.

Her days and nights for the last week had been involved with repairing the Maru. After the last mission Dylan had taken the Maru out on, Beka had expressly forbidden him to ever touch her ship again. Of course, he didn't listen, and was pushing her and the rest of the crew to get it fixed up for a trip to Cranix, a planet that desperately wanted to join the Commonwealth. Even after she had sworn to the Divine that she would kill him herself if he even tried to lay a hand on her ship, he had just given her a patronizing smile and told her that 'of course he wouldn't touch her ship, but they really did need it'. She had walked away before he got any farther.

"Harper!" she yelled, as a jolt of electricity shot up her arm from the panel she had been working at. The engineer's blond head popped out of a conduit above her head, looking sheepish.

"Sorry, Boss!" he called down to her, before disappearing back into the innards of her ship. She sighed tiredly, rubbing her burned arm and wincing.

"Attention! All crew to Command!" Captain Hunt's voice rang out over the coms. Beka got to her feet gratefully, giving Harper a dirty look as he jumped out of somewhere to her left and bounded out of the ship. Rev joined her at the hatch, and they met Trance in the corridor on the way to Command.

"So, what's Dylan want us for, now?" Beka wondered out loud.

They arrived in Command, to find the rest of the crew already there. Dylan stood at the front, eyes fixed on the view screen.

"So kind of you three to join us," he commented, not looking away from the screen. Beka moved forward to see what had caught his attention, and took in a sharp breath.

"Maggog!" she exclaimed, watching as the large ship on the screen began releasing smaller ships. "âBut how?"

"I don't know, Beka, but they've got some kind of new shielding, and our weapons aren't having any effect."

"What're we gonna do?" Harper asked, his entire body practically vibrating with nervous energy.

"Slipstream out of here!" Beka darted for the pilot's chair.

"Don't you think we've already tried that?" Dylan snapped irritably. "Our slip core is still too damaged from the Nietzschean attack last week. We can't go to slip."

"Why is it that ever since we decided to join your little cause, we've been shot at more times than I can count in the last month alone?" Beka groaned.

"Idealism," Tyr stated calmly. Beka grinned at him.

"Maggog ships are on final approach," Rommie called.

"Everyone, find weapons!" Dylan ordered. "We need some kind of a defense! I will not go down without a fight!"

They all loaded up with as many weapons as they could carry, and returned to Command, locking the doors behind them. The Maggog had attached their ships to the hull by then, and the crew could hear the rhythmic pounding as the ships broke through.

"We're all gonna die," Harper muttered. Trance wrapped her tale around his waste, and the two stood, close together, both terrified of what was to come. Dylan stood, the perfect example of a High-Guard officer, forcelance at the ready. Rommie stood beside him, her posture almost identical to his. Beka reflected, as she stood nearby, she, Rev and Tyr clustered together, that this was probably about the time that Dylan and Rommie were wishing they had a full High-Guard crew of 4000 well trained officers and crewmen at their command, instead of a ragtag little group with no military training at all, who would more likely follow her orders than theirs.

The attack on Command was sudden, and brief. The doors weren't as strong as the group had anticipated, and the Maggog were through and attacking in what felt like no time at all. Dylan and Rommie fought, side by side, taking out each Maggog that came through the door. Unfortunately, there were too many for them to keep up with, whitch left Tyr, Rev and Beka as the second line of defense. What they couldn't get, Harper and Trance tried to take out, and Andromeda's internal defenses took care of the rest.

Beka dodged a claw swiping straight for her head, and kicked out, knocking the Maggog back a few feet. She had no time to shoot it, however, for at that moment, Tyr shoved her out of the way of another Maggog leaping at her face. There seemed to be an endless stream of them, filling Command as fast as they could dispense them.

Finally, the entire crew had been forced back against a wall, with the hordes of Maggog pressing in on them. "There's a hatch right above your head, Harper," Rommie called. "If you can get it open, we can all get away."

Harper reached up, hoping that the constant firing from Tyr and Beka would provide adequate cover, and fiddled with the hatch. Finally, he got it open, and, using the sensor consol as leverage, managed to scramble up and into the airshaft. Trance followed, with Beka, Rev, Rommie, Tyr and Dylan close behind. They could still hear the shrieks and snarls of the Maggog, as they tried to get at them through the hatch, which Dylan had closed.

"Where now?" asked Harper.

"Med deck is the second most secure area on the ship after Command," Dylan said.

"Oh, yes, and we all know how well protected Command was," Beka muttered.

"Med deck is this way," Harper called, crawling off to the right. Rommie frowned.

"How does he know that?" she muttered.

"I think Harper knows this ship as well, if not better, than you do, Rommie," Beka laughed halfheartedly.

They arrived on Med deck a few minutes later. Beka winced as she dropped to the floor, only then realizing that her ankle was sprained. She also noticed a streak of blood on Harper's arm, a gash on Rev's shoulder, and a wire sticking out of Rommie's arm. Tyr looked none the worse for where, but he did look tense. Captain Terrific, of course, was fine, and ready to do another round. Beka glared at him. He merely flicked his gaze over to Trance. Beka looked and indeed, Trance looked just as good as Dylan.

"How long do you think it will take them to find us?" Harper asked nervously.

"Not that long, I'd say," Dylan frowned.

Suddenly, there was a brilliant flash of blue light, and standing before them, was a man. Beka's eyes flashed, and her hand dropped to her forcelance.

"Can I kill him?" she asked Dylan.

"Why would you want to kill me?" asked the man innocently.

Beka glared. "I don't know what you're doing here, Sid, or what you want, but I'm not interested."

He arched an eyebrow. "I'm afraid you have me mixed up with someone else. I'm not this Sid you speak of. Rather, I am Q!"

"âQ?" Trance looked suddenly nervous.

"Um, sorry, but you look a lot like Sid to me," said Harper. Rev nodded his agreement.

"Excuse me!" Dylan snapped. "Who is Sid, and who are you?" he directed the first question to the crew of the Maru, and the second to the man standing casually in front of them.

"And how did you get past my internal sensors?" asked Andromeda's holographic form.

"Well, that's quite easy!" Q said lightly, brushing off her question with a wave of his hand. "And it's also completely unimportant. What is, is that I've brought you some friends!" You looked like you could use a little help, so I decided to be accommodating! Have fun!"

"Oh God" Beka clenched her fists.

"Now wait just a minute" Dylan exclaimed, but it was too late. Q snapped his fingers, and vanished, leaving a group of people standing, looking very disorientated, in his wake.


	2. Chapter Two

âAnd The Stars Called Angels

XXX

Chapter Two

"It had been a perfectly normal day for Commander Will Riker. Absolutely nothing out of the ordinary. He had gotten up, showered, gotten dressed, had breakfast with Deanna and Geordie, and started his shift on the bridge. And it was then, half an hour into his shift that his day began to get a little less normal. He had been talking to Lt.Cmdr. Data about some modifications which the android and Geordie wanted to make to the warp core. Captain Picard had strode onto the bridge, and straight to Lt. Worf's station, looking more than a little ticked off. And then, without any notice or warning, there had been a big flash of light ™, and they had ended upâhere, wherever here was. He looked at the group of people standing around them with apprehension.

"This is it?!" a blond woman demanded. "Some super-powered version of my uncle with a superiority complex tells us he's sending help, and this is all we get? I mean, I always knew he was cheep"

"This day could not get worse," a blond man stated.

"Shut up, Harper," a dark haired woman, with exotic features rolled her eyes.

Suddenly, there was a pounding on the door, and the entire group went into panic mode. The blond woman's eyes widened, and she swore violently in quite a few different languages. "Damn it, they're here already? The Divine is not watching over us! Hell, I'd say the Divine hates us!"

"Can you blame it?" a tall, dark-skinned man with some kind of bone spikes protruding from his arms, asked.

"We can't keep running and hiding forever," a purple girl stated, looking scared.

"No, just till we get to the Maru, so we can get the hell out of here!" the blond woman exclaimed.

"May I ask where we are?" Picard asked anyone.

"Captain," Data called, "I am picking up no residual transporter effects. We did not arrive here by any conventional means." Worf growled.

"The door is giving way," aâstrange being with claws called.

"Oh God," the man identified as Harper muttered.

"I'm Dylan Hunt, welcome to the Andromeda," said a tall, brown haired man.

"Ok," called the blonde woman, "Harper, Trance, get behind us and try and find another way out. Tyr, Rommie, you're our first line of defense, theâuhâ.other people over there are our second, and Rev and I will come in from either side!" The whole group jumped into action, scrambling in to position. Captain Hunt did not look impressed.

"You and I are going to have a very long talk after this is over," he told the blonde.

"After this is over, we'll most likely be dead," she retorted dryly. Picard, Riker, Troi, 'Data and Worf moved to the open space between the dark skinned man and the dark haired woman and the blonde woman and the furry covered man. "Sir?" asked Riker of Picard.

"Number One, I think right now our best chance of finding out where we are is by helping these people defend themselves against whatever form of attack may be coming," Picard told him calmly.

"So, what exactly are we fighting?" Riker asked Captain Hunt.

"Maggog," the other man said shortly.

"What are Maggog?" asked Data curiously. "There are no references to such a species in my databanks."

"You're an AI?" asked the dark haired woman, turning to him.

"Yes, I" Data's response was cut off as the door exploded inwards. Hordes of fur covered, snarling, slobbering beasts that closely resembled the man standing behind the Enterprise crew burst into the room.

"Those," said the blonde, "Are Maggog."

"Lovely creatures," Picard murmured dryly, before being forced to pull out his phaser and begin fighting. The battle was long and hard, though most of the strange people seemed well adept at fighting the Maggog. Picard relied heavily on his phaser, a weakness that almost got him killed on more than one occasion.

To his surprise, Riker saw that Deanna was showing an excellent grasp of hand-to-hand combat, having lost her phaser near the beginning of the battle. In a way, he decided, that was almost a blessing. She didn't have the best aim with a phaser, however her skills without it were well beyond anything he'd ever thought the elegant betazoid capable of.

A Maggog came at him, and he jumped out of the way, allowing the blonde woman to take it out with her gun. "You looked a little zoned out there," she told him, using the moment of calm to catch her breath. He shrugged, shifting his phaser to his other hand.

"Nothing, it was nothing. I'm Commander William Riker," he told her, smiling charmingly.

"Captain Beka Valentine. Nice to meet you, how're you enjoying your stay onboard so far?"

"It's beenâinformative, to say the least," Riker shrugged.

"Oh shit!" Beka muttered, raising her gun and firing at a group of Maggog advancing on them. "So much for our rest," and with that, she was off, gone back into the fray.

He looked over to Data, where he stood, back-to-back with the dark haired woman, both moving faster than the Human eye could follow.

"Must be an Android," Riker muttered incredulously to himself, watching the woman's hair falling wildly about her face as she moved.

"I believe she prefers the term 'AI'," a smooth masculine voice commented from behind him. Riker could not turn to see who was speaking, too busy fighting off the lone Maggog who just refused to leave him alone or die.

"Interesting, so she is an android" he spoke over the noise of the battle around them.

"Yes. She is the ship's avatar."

"Theâship?" Riker slammed the butt of his gun into the Maggog's face, and it staggered back long enough for him to get off a killing shot.

There was no one behind him when he turned, but he heard the same voice of his unknown companion from the dark skinned man, now on the other side of the room. "Ascendant, your forcelance is not effective enough! Begin using your body as weapon. Remember the courses I have given you."

She replied with something that was just shy of a growl. "I've got hundreds of ways to kill and fight in my memory already, Tyr."

"You forget, those are strategy and skill only. Does your memory bank tell you that if you time it just right, a Than is open to attack after firing a weapon? Or show you how to read the facial expressions of a human so well that you can tell if they are bluffing or not without using any sensors?"

She didn't reply. Just then, Worf arrived near Riker. The Klingon's eyes were bright, and his face was split with a wide grin.

"Well, Mr. Worf, it sure appears that you're enjoying yourself," Riker said, jumping out of the way of a stray weapon blast.

"This is a good fight, Commander!" Worf slammed his fist into a Maggog's stomach, following it up with a kick to the beast's head. Riker heard the click of claws on the wall behind him, and spun, phaser already up to face the next Maggog.

"Don't shoot!" He blinked, staring at the orange robed

Maggog before him.

"OhâRev, is it?" he asked, phaser still up. The Maggog nodded.

"I am the Reverend Be" A swarm of Maggog piled onto the two men, and they were split apart before any more conversation could take place.

"Fun day, isn't it?" Riker asked Deanna the next time he saw her.

"Oh yes, just wonderful," she returned, flipping backwards to avoid a falling shelf.

"Just how I wanted to spend my last day before Shore Leave," he agreed dryly.

"I think Worf is enjoying himself, at least," she said.

"Yeah, I'd say so," he scanned the room, but the Klingon was nowhere in sight. Neither, he realized after a moment, were many of the others. Only Troi, himself, Beka Valentine and the purple girl were left.

"Where's everyone else?" he called across to Valentine.

"You don't think the Maggog would stick to med deck, do you?" she called back, flipping her hair, which he realized to his shock, was now a very dark shade of purple.

Suddenly, a woman's voice floated out from over their heads. "The Maggog have covered over half the ship. My internal defenses are doing what they can, but my main systems are being increasingly damaged by the fight."

Riker stared up in shock. "Who"

"Andromeda. The ship we're aboard" Valentine groaned, and jumped over a medical bed to join them.

"Q wouldn't have sent them if he didn't have a good reason," said the purple girl suddenly. "Don't worry, we're all going to be fine."

"Famous last words," Riker and Valentine said in unison.


	3. three

And The Stars Called Angels

By: Thought

A/N: I hate words that require spelling. And…um, merry Christmas!!!!!

XXX

Chapter Three

"Andromeda, is it?"

Rommie glanced up from the panel she was reconfiguring. The balding captain, Picard, she reminded herself, was standing near her, watching as her fingers danced across the buttons and touchscreens. She had managed to find a part of the ship that was not yet infested by Maggog, and was working to get internal defenses back up and running. Her scans showed that the Maru seemed unharmed, and if they could all get there in one piece, they would probably have a good chance of getting away alive. It made her sick, thinking of abandoning Andromeda, but the logical part of her mind, and the part that cared deeply about all of the crew were determined that getting away on the Maru was the best and only course of action open to them.

"Captain?" she smiled politely.

"What are you doing?"

She turned back to her work. "Trying to get Internal Defenses back online."

"Does your Captain Hunt truly believe that we can defeat all of these Maggog?"

She glared at the panel, but managed to restrain herself from snapping at him. "I don't know. However, I have every faith in him, and I trust him to get us out of this conflict in one piece."

"I see." Picard didn't say anything for a few minutes, and she completed her task. Rising to her feet, she stood facing him.

"With all due respect, Captain," she said coldly, "Shouldn't you be helping fight off the Maggog, instead of standing here questioning Captain Hunt's abilities?"

He stared calmly at her. "I am not questioning his abilities, I assure you. I merely wish to have all the facts."

"Well, I don't see how any of the questions you've asked assist you in that. If you would like a recounting of his military history, I would be happy to give you one on our way back to the fight."

He shook his head minutely. "Tell me. Are you this distrustful of everyone you meet?"

"Yes, most of the time," she answered shortly.

"Interesting. And how much control does Captain Valentine have over the crew?"

She blinked. "Um…"

"More than Captain Hunt?"

"Well, no, not really, I mean, she's bound to have—"

"Who do you have more faith in?"

"Captain Hunt!"

"And will Captain Valentine follow Captain Hunt's orders without question?"

"No, that is, I don't know. It's a very long, complicated and convoluted story that I really don't have time to tell you right now."

He nodded. "So. In a situation where a quick and decisive decision needs to be made, who would make it? And whose orders would be obeyed more readily?"

She glared at him. "I don't think I'm the best person to be asking these questions of."

"Oh, on the contrary, I think you are the best person. Being an android, you have no biases, and can answer truthfully, and without the added complexities of emotional attachments."

Her eyes flashed. "Are you racist to Ais, Captain?"

"Not at all. As a matter of fact, I am quite good friends, and captain of, an android, myself."

"Yes. Mr. Data. I met him during the initial fight. From what I can tell, Captain, your treatment of Ais is rather disgusting. What kind of a name is Data, anyway? That, alone, sets him apart from other people. And is it true that he had to go to court to get rights? The Charter Of Rights included Ais a very, very long time ago. As soon as the developed sentience."

Picard took a deep breath. "Mr. Data is the only of his kind."

Her eyes widened. "You mean, he's the only AI in your Federation?"

"He is."

Slowly, things began to fall into place for Rommie. "And let me guess, he's got no emotions, does he?"

Picard shook his head. "No, he does not. From what you've been saying, may I assume that you do? And that AIs, as you call them, are much more common?"

She nodded, feeling some of her anger with the man fall away. "It was about four hundred years ago that all Commonwealth High Guard ships were fitted with Ais, and avatars were becoming popular just before the Fall." As she spoke she drew her forcelance, and began walking briskly toward the door. Picard followed, the weapon, which all the new arrivals carried, held loosely in his left hand.

"And all of these Ais were sentient?"

"Mmhm."

"And…you are an avatar?"

"Yes. Our engineer, Seamus Harper, constructed my body not long after he and the others came onboard."

"And what is this Fall you speak of?" asked Picard. "You seem to have a very small and…diverse crew for such a large warship."

"The fall of the Commonwealth took place about 300 years ago, when the then united Nietzscheans decided that we were to weak, and started a war. It left the known worlds in turmoil, with no structure of government. The Nietzscheans broke apart into small prides, and chaos ruled. Captain Hunt and I were trapped on the Event Horizon of a black hole during the initial conflict, and three hundred years later, a Nightsider hired Captain Valentine and her crew to pull us out. After getting rid of him, Dylan offered to allow the crew of the Maru to stay onboard as his crew. Ever since then, we've been working to restore the Commonwealth."

"And how long ago was that?" asked Picard.

"A little over a year ago," she responded.

"It seems a very commendable and noble mission," remarked Picard.

"It is," she agreed.

"And your Captain Hunt also seems an admeralable man."

She didn't get a chance to respond, as at that moment, there was the sound of laser fire, and they turned a corner to see Andromeda trying to take out a swarm of Maggog.

XXX

"What do you mean the doors are jammed?!" demanded Beka Valentine, staring at the holographic woman in front of her in disbelief.

"I'm sorry, Beka," said the woman in a detached manner, "A blast from my internal defenses that was meant for a Maggog hit the doors, and melted them shut. There's nothing I can do until I can get a bot down there, and that might take a while."

"Don't you have failsafes against this sort of thing?!" demanded Valentine angrily.

The woman shrugged. "It's hardly a normal situation," she reminded the irate captain.

Riker watched in interest from where he was perched on one of the counters. The purple girl, Trance, was watching Beka and the hologram, her eyes wide and her tale flicking from side to side in what he could only interpret as nervousness.

Deanna returned from where she had been bandaging a wound on her arm, leaping over Maggog bodies to stand near Valentine. It bothered him, the way that the betazoid moved instinctively towards the other woman. In any other situation, he knew, she would be at his side in an instant.

Trance looked at him, a little smile playing at the corners of her lips. He lifted his eyebrows, not feeling in the mood for smiles and cheer. Valentine had started in on the hologram again, and Deanna was watching in something that might have been amusement.

"You're jealous," the girl told him, as if sharing a deep secret.

"What?! Of who?" he blinked rapidly, his train of thought derailed by the seeming non sequitur.

"Of Beka. You're jealous that your friend didn't come over here, aren't you?"

Riker stared at her. "No. What gave you that idea?" he felt uneasy. People were not supposed to be able to read him that well.

"It's ok, you know," the girl laughed. "Beka and Tyr are meant for each other. But…Deanna and Rommie…if Rhade doesn't come soon, Rommie may get distracted. And we need all of you to defeat the darkness, both within and without. The Maggog are the only the beginning."

Riker backed away from her. "Look, um, I think maybe I'm going to go see how Captain Valentine and Counselor Troi are doing." And with that, he turned and fled to the other side of the room. Valentine smiled flirtatiously at him as he arrived, and Deanna moved to stand beside him. Which, he noted, put her between himself and Valentine.

"Like I was saying," the hologram continued speaking, "Captain Hunt and Mr. Worf made it to a communications station, and have sent a distress call. How soon it will be answered is impossible to say at this time, however we are in a fairly populated area, so my estimates are that assistance will arrive within no more than six hours."

"That's good. Hell, that's just great, but what are we supposed to do until then?!" demanded Valentine, her hair shifting to a bright red.

"Attempt to fight them off?" the hologram shrugged.

"Wonderful," Valentine muttered. Suddenly, there was the sound of ripping metal, and a grate high above them fell, hitting the floor with a clatter. A familiar head popped out of the hole in the ceiling, and Riker grinned.

"Commander. Counselor. Captain. Miss Gemini. Would you like some assistance getting out?" asked Data.

XXX

A/N2: Um…there. It took me a whole lot of months, but it lives. Now, what to write next?

Oh, and if my characterization of the Star Trek people seems a little off, it's because I don't watch it anymore. It scares me. It's too perfect, but fanfic still interests me, so…yeah….


End file.
